Cryptozoology Thread

[Nautipus]

I got this idea from reading the dragons! thread.
Who thinks that other mythical creatures could have existed? Things like the Kraken, hydra, anything at all that you can think of.

[Earniel]

The architeutis and the (whatisnameagain) mesonychiteutis (or something similar I never can remember)), two species of giant (we're talking really giant here) squid do definitely come close to Kraken-hood. Fascinating critters.

[Nautipus]

I'm actually a semi-expert on those two animals. Many people dont know this, but the Kraken was sometimes described as a giant lobster or crab as well.
Though, architeuthis and mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni(the only known species of collosal squid) do fit the bill of the generic Kraken. But their have been reports out of the Indian ocean(during the time of English dominance) of gigantic, squid-like creatures ramming or sinking boats there, especially in the bay of bengal.
Also, there was what looked like a six-ton octopus carcass that washed ashore in florida, it even had the stumps of tentacles attached to it. It was never really decided what it was but there are photographs....unmuseum.mus.pa.us/oct.jpg, there should be one there, they even tried to photograph one in the wild, and they did photograph something, they just dont know what.
There are also tales coming out of Bermuda of something dragging ships along by their anchors or crab-trap (which Octopus dolfeini has been known to do)

[GrayMouser]

Giant squids would be among the more plausible, as would sea serpents, based either on moasour type reptiles, or earlier whales such as Basilosaurus (check the name!).

Land animals seem to be more based on the Chimera/griffin/winged horse type, mixtures rather than independent creations. Unlikely unless Archimedes was running a gene-splicing shop out back.

[Nautipus]

There actually was a mass sighting of a sea serpent in Gloucester, which is in New England somewhere, at around 1817. It is described as being around fortyfive to fifty feet in length, black, with the head of a horse, and a sting that is about 4 feet long. That's not your typical Basilosaurus, though it does have similarities, especially the head. There have also been sightings on the west coust of America, they were described as moving in a corkscrew motion, there is actual video of them moving through the water, if I find it online I'll post it.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Also, there was what looked like a six-ton octopus carcass that washed ashore in florida, it even had the stumps of tentacles attached to it.

Giant octopus? That's new to me, I was only aware of giant squid. I suppose that's just a language issue, in Dutch octopus is only used (to my knowledge) for the eight-tentacled with the round body, and squid for the group with elongated bodies and two long specific catch-arms.

Of course, as long as these critters hide in the very deep, encounters or evidence will be rare. But mosasaurians or basilosaurs would have more difficulty hiding there as long as the molluscs. If they still exist, they should be more noticable.

[Nautipus]

Yep, it was an octopus, eight arms, round body and everything.

That's true about the basilosaurs and mososaurs, but what if it's simply a case of mistaken identity? I'm not argueing this in either direction, just throwing some possibilities out there, but it could be a giant eel of some kind. Conger eels are somewhat snakelike, so it could be that there is a large, deepwater specie that is heretofor undiscovered.

But there is lots of evidence for the giant octopus(eight arms), nothing irefutable, but some compelling evidence. The octopus that washed ashore in Florida was thought by one scientist to be a sperm whale's head, but it had no blowhole, bones, or lower jaw, but it did have what appeared to be a central cavity in between the "arms" that could have housed the beak. There was a report of a sixty-foot Great Pacific Octopus found near Alaska, but that wasnt substantiated.

[Nautipus]

I found something pretty neat last year. So for anyone who's wondering, yes a sperm whale has been killed by a squid. The report is rather vague and I cant seem to find it again, but once I do, I'll be sure to put it here, so dont get me up the tailpipe about not having sources, please .
Anyway, the whale was washed up (somewhere) and hadsucker marks that measured one foot in diameter etched into its skin. To put that in perspective, Mesonychoteuthis' suckers are less than half that size in the known specimens. The squid that possesed these suction discks would have arms that were at least...2.5 feet wide, If it was a grasping arm, rather than a tentacle. The whale hade been shredded and(from what I can remember) eviscerated. That is common among cephalopods which eat fish with especially tough or scaly skin, such as sharks. They cut through the skin and eat the inards, the part that is most nutritious. they obviously cant know that it's the most nutritious part, but it's the easiest to eat. The same applies to the whale carcass, which was freshley dead.

[Tuinor]

They don't exist.

I actually have heard all of your stories before, Nautipus, my cephalopod friend, and being the land-dwelling, uneducated man I am I truly can't dispute any of your claims on Krakens. Tough luck, you'll have to find a debate from elsewhere.

Thus, let us change the focus of the conversation...

Now, about alien life forms...

Just kidding. I do have one question for you, though: If the gigantic blob in Florida really was an octopus, and the cavity did once house the beak, where did the beak disappear to? Just a question.

[Nautipus]

That's actually a very good question. the answer is this. If the blob were an octopus, and there was ever a beak, then it may have simply fallen out. The carcass was decayed badly and had been partialy eaten by scavengers and sharks (actually, one scientist based his whole claim that it was a sperm whale's head on the fact that it had what appeared to be a blowhole on top, which turned out to be a bite-mark from a shark. The scientist never actually saw the carcass, he was just guessing from drawing and poor photos) As you know, I've disected plenty of squid and have had the opportunity to handle the carcass of an octopus, and I must say, that their beaks are redily dislodged. While th animal is alive it is almost impossible to get away from the beak, but once dead, unlike land-dwelling animal, they do not enter rigor mortis, they loosen up, and if a carcass is decayed and jostled enough, the beak may come out all of its own.

[me9996]

There was those goat-suckers found dead a while ago.

I wonder what happened to that...

[Nautipus]

Oh those whatchacallits.....chupacabras I think their called. I really know next to nothing about them, other than that they were either supposed to be a monster, a giant bat, a crazy dude, or something else.....

[Acalewia]

Goat-Suckers? Me you're something else

[Nautipus]

Hey, Me. Google chupacabra for images and check some of that stuff out. It's pretty weird and the sites are unhinged, man. But some neat info. Let me know what you think.

[me9996]

Yeah, goat-suckers are proubly the hardest legendary things to identify.

Mostly becuase I can't find any one image of what a goat-sucker would look like. Everyone disagrees!
And not in the same way as dragons or werewolves, these things look wildly different from account to account.

If you asked somebody on the street what a dragon looked like they'd say (If they didn't just say they don't exist) something along the lines of a fire-breathing lizard with wings.
Not so with goat-suckers, if you ask what one of those look like on the street you'll get more wierd looks than with the dragon question and likely won't get any clear answer by the end of the day.
(I haven't tried this by the way)

Basicly they are blood drinking critters big enough to drain... Well, a goat.

[Nautipus]

I watched a show on National Geographic about them once. It was really weird and had me asking more questions than it gave me answers. They are rather obscure, and until further evidence is presented to me, I'll have to say that I dont really think that they exhist. Maybe they did at one time, but i dont think so anymore. If they did you probably wouldnt see so many different interpretations of them. What do you think?

[Nautipus]

Did anyone else catch that show on humboldt squid on the history channel? They had a theory that giant humboldt could lurk deep in the sea of cortez, and they did video this huge something down there. At about 1000 feet they caught something on camera that they estimated to be 108 feet long ( if it was architeuthis and not dosidicus gigas) based on the proprtions of the arms. Even on the video, you can see that whatever it is, it is huge!

[Mari]

If we are talking about mythical seacreatures I only have one word: Nessie

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Mari

If we are talking about mythical seacreatures I only have one word: Nessie

Got any pet theories or anything? (oh, btw, this isnt limited to sea creatures, that's just a subject I really like and have a lot of info on hand about. Just throw out anything you want to discuss )

[Mari]

No. No specific theories which I believe with all my heart. But I find the "Nessie is a dinosaur type and Loch Ness is connected through caves and the sorts with other lakes and waters and that is why Loch Ness may appear to be empty to the scientists"- theory interesting.
But I am interested in all such stories whether I believe them or not. It makes relaxed reading.